When stripping the insulation or insulator of an electric wire, a wire stripper may be used. A conventional wire stripper includes blades which may be pivoted together and two jaws respectively formed integral with the blades at one end for acting against each other to strip the insulator of the electric wire. When the jaws are squeezed toward each other and against the electric wire, the insulator of the electric wire is cut by the cutting edge at each jaw, and then the wire stripper tool is pulled outwards from the electric wire, enabling the cut piece of insulator to be removed from the electric wire. However, when pulling the tool outwards from the electric wire, the blades tend to be biased, which may result in damage to the conductor of the electric wire.
In order to prevent damage to the conductor of the wire, various wire stripper devices have been developed. One such device is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 6,089,125. In this device, the wire stripper includes two pressure bars each having a fixed end pivoted to each other and a free end. Two wire stripping cutter assemblies are symmetrically provided at the free ends of the pressure bars for stripping the insulator of a two-line electric wire. An elongated cutter blade is fastened to one pressure bar and moved to act V-notches at the other pressure bar for stripping the insulator of electric wires of different diameters. The wire stripping cutter assemblies each have two symmetrical pairs of movable wire clamping plates respectively supported on a respective spring element, and forced by the respective spring element for holding down a two-line electric wire in position for stripping positively. This keeps the electric wire maintained perpendicular to the cutter blades, enabling the insulator of the electric wire to be positively stripped.
Another device which has the object of removing the insulation form an electrical wire or conductor is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 6,439,084. A laminated blade assembly includes a stationary blade and a pair of insulation supports and a movable blade and a pair of insulation supports with each blade sandwiched between a pair of supports. Semi-circular grooves formed in the insulation supports and smaller semi-circular grooves formed in blades in alignment with the insulation support grooves creating circular grooves to support and cut the insulation when the stationary and movable blades come together. The support semi-circular grooves of one of the stationary and movable insulation supports are located with their peripheries tangent to a straight line which is not parallel to the center lines of the blade semi-circular grooves. Accordingly, the wire and its insulation will not be bent during severing and insulation removal thus providing a clean cut.
However, while these prior art devices help to support the insulation and the conductor, the removal of the insulation is not always clean and with no damage to the conductor. It would, therefore, be advantageous to provide a stripping mechanism which has an added pulling force to properly remove the insulation, such that the stripped wire meets industry standards, such as, but not limited to, that in SAE AS5457, entitled Aerospace Standard for Hand-Held Wire Stripper Tools.